GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— For the third straight year, the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team will be represented at this weekend's AVCA Beach National Championships in Huntsville, Alabama.

The tournament will run from Friday through Sunday at the John Hunt Park Beach Volleyball Complex and is considered as the pairs national championship of the sport.

CMU will be represented by senior Barett Nolan and freshman Ellie Ask.

The Mavericks earned an institutional bid by finishing third in the NCAA Division II portion of the AVCA Small College Beach Championships last April and are one of just two non-Division I schools to participate in the 64-pair tournament.  Tampa, which won the AVCA Small College Championship title is the other.

Tournament Details

The pairs will compete in two modified pool play matches on Friday, which will set the brackets for the remainder of the third annual tournament, which began in 2022 after NCAA legislation was passed in May, 2022 allowing for college beach volleyball players to compete in multiple-day events during the fall non-championship season.
 
Pairs will have at least one match on all three days of the event, which will also include a 4-team men's team championship competition.

Action begins at 9 a.m. CST (8 a.m. Mountain) on Friday and Saturday and an hour earlier at 8 a.m. CST (7 a.m. Mountain) on Sunday.

Seeding & Qualification

A breakdown of the qualification and seeding procedures, can be found on this tournament information document and on the tournament website.

All 17 of the teams that competed at last year's NCAA Championships will be represented by at least one pair.  Sixteen of those schools will also have a second pair as this weekend's event will bring the best collegiate programs together for what should be a high level event.

By virtue of their TruVolley rating of 6.56, Nolan and Ask have been seeded 63^rd and will play in Pool 2.

They have been drawn to play against Florida Atlantic's Ashleigh Adams and Marketa Svozilova in their opening match, will be played at 10 a.m. CST (9 a.m. Mountain) on Court 1.  The Owl pair is seeded second.

The make-up of the rest of the pool was changed and now includes UAB's Jasmine Haas/Olivia Stant and Steton's Julia Czurylo/Hanna Gubik, who will face off in the other Pool 2 opener.  The winners of those matches will then take on each other at 1 p.m. CST (Noon Mountain) while the losers will do the same.  The results of those matches will then set the first through fourth place positioning in the pool.

The 15 other pools will be contested the same way.

The 16 pool winners will then advance via a bye to the Round of 32 in the 48-pair championship bracket on Saturday.  Meanwhile, the second and third place finishers who will have gone 1-1 in their first two matches will play their first round match in the championship bracket on Friday afternoon trying to win their way into the Round of 32.

The 16 fourth place teams who went 0-2 will be placed in a separate consolation bracket for the remainder of the tournament trying to finish as high as 49^th.

Other consolation brackets will determine the final placements for the remainder of the field as teams drop out of the championship bracket.

Previous History

The Mavericks have also been represented in the previous two editions of the tournament.  In 2022, then seniors Macie Lachemann and Holly Schmidt went 1-5 with a win over a pair from the University of Oregon in the opening round of the 49^th place bracket.  They then lost their final two matches, falling out of the tournament in the semifinal round of the 53^rd place bracket and had an official placement of tied for 55^th.

In 2023, Taylor Scherff and Gracyn Spresser tied for 59^th after recording a 1-6 record, which included a default win over a pair from Hawai'i.

About the Maverick Players

Barett Nolan is beginning her second year with the Maverick program after transferring from Irvine Valley College.  She went 18-12 in her junior season with the Mavericks, playing with partners Savannah Ott and Gracyn Spresser.  The Mission Viejo, California native began the 2024 season with Ott before switching partners and playing with Spresser the rest of the year, going 12-9 overall, including 10-6 in duals at the No. 4 spot and 1-2 at the No. 3 spot of the Maverick lineup.

She and Spresser then went 3-2 and were comfortably ahead in another unfinished match during the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, significantly contributing to the Mavs' strong third place team finish with a 4-2 record.

Ellie Ask will make her Maverick and collegiate debut this weekend and is a 2024 graduate of Kasson-Mantorville High School in Minnesota.  She earned all-area third team and All-Hiawatha Valley Conference honors in indoor volleyball for the KoMets, helping the team to a state runner-up finish.   She also played club beach volleyball for Coach Stephen McCarthy's The McCarthy Project (TMP).

About the Maverick Program

As a team, the Mavs have emerged as one of the elite beach programs at the NCAA Division II level.  They have finished in the top three at each of the last three AVCA Small College Beach Championships, winning the title in 2022 before taking second in 2023 and third last year.

They went 18-12 as a team last spring, falling just one win shy of their school record of 19, set the year prior.

The Mavericks have had a AVCA Small College Beach Championship All-America Pair in each of the last three years with senor Hahni Johnson and graduate student Amanda Ollinger winning those honors last year. 

Johnson and Ollinger were also named as the AVCA/College Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week and were an AVCA Top Flight Award winning duo in the top flight and co-set the CMU record for wins in a season, going 30-2 overall while winning their final 12 straight matches including an undefeated mark at the national tournament.

David Skaff has been the program's only head coach and started the program in 2016.  He and the Mavericks are beginning their tenth overall season this weekend.

Follow the Mavs

Live results the tournament will be posted on the Volleyball Life website at https://volleyballlife.com/tournament/23709/division/91263/teams.

A daily recap will also be posted on www.cmumavericks.com each evening throughout the weekend.

How to Watch

Through the AVCA's partnership with Volleyball World, live coverage of this weekend's marquee matches on Courts 1, 2 and 3 will be streamed with a full production of Court 1.  The Mavs' opening match was scheduled to be on that court but has been moved.

Instead, the Mavericks are hoping to air their matches through their Instagram account (@cmu_beachvb), which fans are encouraged to follow.